Nine-year-old Tevin Griffey has been taking mental notes from his big brother Trey Griffey, the star receiver for Orlando Dr. Phillips High, who committed to Arizona on Monday.

One of the top uncommitted players in the state of Florida finally ended his search following a weekend visit to Tucson, picking the Wildcats over state rival Arizona State, where he had visited the previous weekend (Jan. 13-15).

“I feel great … it was basically just the atmosphere and I loved everything about it,” Trey Griffey said late Monday night. “It was just a great, enjoyable trip to Tucson.”

He had said all along that he wanted to announce his decision on National Signing Day, in front of friends and teammates and coaches and family in the Dr. Phillips commons. But his overwhelming urge to tell was too much. He liked Arizona. He was going to be a Wildcat.

“My parents said, ‘It’s up to you, you got to do what you want to do ... what you feel is right,' ” Griffey said. “I’m going to the University of Arizona. It doesn’t get any better than that.”

Other schools in the hunt were Iowa State, Michigan State and Washington State, but he never took official visits to those schools.

Coaches had been calling a lot lately, following the breakout senior season Griffey had. Especially after being able to show off his skills during the week-long practices for the Under Armour All-American Game earlier this month.

Scouts were watching. Guys like family friend Keyshawn Johnson was watching too, giving his stamp of approval while helping coach for the UA game.

Little brother Tevin was also watching ... and learning, every step of the way.

"He's always asking, 'Why you gotta call that coach and why do you have to do this,' " Trey said. "I just told him that 'you've got to stay in touch, keep people aware of what's going on with you.' "

With so many people coming at him from numerous directions, it was probably nice for the just-turned-18-year-old Trey to have young Tevin to talk to about everything. Somebody who was quizzical, yet wasn't looking for an angle.

"He’s happy I made that choice. He likes Arizona," Trey said. "He’s all about everything, wanting to know everything, taking the trips with me and all that stuff. He loved it."

Dad always says young Tevin is the best athlete in the family.

Oh yeah, don't tell All-American point guard sister Taryn about that. She's a sophomore who plays like a WNBA star. Question her ability and she might throw her DP record of nine 3-pointers from the other night in your face.

It's one big athletic family, the Griffeys.

Dad, of course, is the former Major League Baseball player and future Baseball Hall of Famer Ken Griffey Jr., who is the son of former Major League Baseball Player Ken Griffey Sr.

And the rest just keep it going, and this time, it's Trey's turn. He had an incredible breakout season as a senior, his only season at Dr. Phillips after transferring from Winter Garden West Orange High.

At West Orange as a junior, Griffey had 22 catches -- the leading receiver for the Warriors -- for 362 yards and three touchdowns in eight games.

Dr. Phillips needed a go-to receiver. Heck, the Panthers needed anybody who could play offense. Gone was the majority of the offensive production from the 2010 squad that finished as the state runner-up with a 14-1 record.

Junior running back Eric Harrell was the lone returnee who had even caught a pass in 2010, catching six of the 157 completions, accounting for 86 of the 2,545 passing yards amassed the year before.

In stepped Griffey. It wasn't like he was a stranger. He played Pop Warner football with Dr. Phillips players, like quarterback Nick Patti.

Stirring up that old connection worked wonders. Griffey set school records for passes caught (74) and yards (970) in a season, and also broke DP single-game records for catches (13) and receiving yards (188) on Senior Night against Freedom, Nov. 4.

Griffey, who is ranked No. 19 in the Sentinel's 2012 Central Florida Super60 and No. 77 in the Sentinel's 2012 Florida Top 100, joins Dr. Phillips teammates QB Nick Patti (Boise State) and LB Phillip Amone (BYU) as NCAA Division I-A football commitments. Interestingly, all three will play at Western schools in states that, on a map, appear one on top of the other Idaho, Utah and Arizona.

Asked Monday to consider what his answer would have been at this time last year if asked about his future as a college football player, Griffey said he was not sure. He had just changed schools at that point and was just hoping to fit in.

"I would have just been happy to go to Dr. Phillips and be hoping that the big changes would help me in recruiting," Griffey said. "I went to DP and I got to team up with Nick and Phil and as the three main seniors, actually four, with Sam Ranieri (the center), we controlled where we wanted to go ... how far we went.

"We put everything on the line."

The Panthers finished 10-2 this past season, losing in the Class 8A regional final to Tampa Plant, the eventual state champion.

There were a lot of coaches interested in Trey. Most, however, had a difficult time getting past the name. The question was asked often: Is he getting props because his name is Griffey, or is he just another Griffey who happens to be good?

One guy stuck with him. Griffey took in a camp last summer at Indiana, where the co-offensive coordinator at the time was Rod Smith. The pair struck up a relationship that they maintained through the course of the season and when Smith took a new job of the same position under new Arizona head coach Rich Rodriguez, he still had Griffey in mind.

Smith was the one to whom Griffey broke the news Monday night.

"He was excited," Griffey said. "He's very happy."

Trey first let his family in on the news and they went out to dinner prior to letting the coaches in on his future plans.

"They're just happy for me," Trey said of his parents Ken Jr. and Melissa. "They're just happy about what I’ve accomplished this year and where I’m at now.

"They really stuck by me through everything ... always at my games or always in contact and for them to be the first people who I told that I was committing to Arizona, it was a great moment."

And they'll all be there next Wednesday as Trey signs the dotted line. There were 13 members at the Under Armour game. There might be more in the DP commons on National Signing Day (Feb. 1).

Tevin will be there ... watching, and jumping around like he doesn't have a care in the world.

But he does care. He probably wondered why he wasn't on the cover of ESPN Rise magazine like his sister and brother were last summer.

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